The Lion of Judah

Turning the Word of God this morning to Genesis 49, Genesis 49. I’m not going to deal with Hebrews this morning; my mind is drawn to a different text for our communion service, which I trust will be a blessing. I hope that you are in a spirit this morning where you freely, fully, and voluntarily crown Christ—where your desire is to see Him exalted, that your whole life is geared toward His praise, and there’s a surrender, a posture of surrender in your soul. Some of you young people, you need to get there; you need to get to a place where you personally surrender your life, to know that Christ is first—to say and declare, “Christ is first,” and to live a life where you make decisions that are controlled by this preeminent posture, as we used that word just a moment ago. He is first. No matter what, He is first. No matter whether it results in our own pain, our own suffering, or loss—He is first. Always first. And so I encourage you to get to that place and to try, by God’s grace, to stay there. When He is first, everything else falls into place. And when I say that, I don’t mean that life goes easily, but it’s hard to be at peace when you know He is not first. It’s hard to have inner rest, and whatever kind of external rest or prosperity you may have, if you don’t have it inside, it doesn’t matter—it will haunt you, torment you, and eventually get the better of you if you cannot come to terms in your own soul that He is first, He is foremost, He is all in all. Don’t live at odds; don’t live in a constant battle and tension.

We’re going to read the opening 12 verses of Genesis 49, which is well known to many of you, where Jacob calls his sons and begins to give prophecies concerning them. We will not read all of it, but our focus will be upon language that pertains to Judah. And I hope it will be of encouragement as we prepare our hearts to remember Christ in His appointed way.

Genesis 49, reading from verse 1:

  “Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear, O sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power, unstable as water, thou shalt not excel, because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed, then defiledst it. He went up to my couch.”
  “Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. Oh, my soul, come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly, my honor. Be not thou united, for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.”
  “Judah, thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up; he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be; binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s coat unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes; his eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.”
  Amen.

This is God’s precious word that you are to receive, you are to believe, and you are to obey. The people of God said, Amen.

Let us pray.

God, help us here. There is nothing like the eternal word. Every word of God is pure. We pray this morning as Thou hast directed us to a particular portion; Thou hast caused our thoughts to dwell upon this particular text. Oh God, let it be—as an enlightenment for us as we come to sit and remember our Lord Jesus, to consider Him who suffered for us, to consider Him who triumphed for us. We pray this morning that there would be help given in the preaching and hearing of the Word. Let the Word run. Let souls profit. Let the kingdom advance. Let people come to a deeper and greater knowledge of Christ. And should there be any, if there be even but one unsaved and able to comprehend the Word today, we pray for their salvation. Let this be a day they never forget—the day when the Lord saved their soul. Bless everyone, then, and help us now, please. We abandon all of our own knowledge and strength and give ourselves up that we might be full of the Holy Spirit to preach in His power and wisdom. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The text before us, beloved, is not merely an ancient blessing uttered by the lips of the patriarch, Jacob. It is a prophecy, a promise, even a proclamation of the supremacy of the coming Messiah. The language in this prophecy as a whole has many applications and many things to understand from it. But the text that we’re going to focus upon will, in a very unique and special way, show us something concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. The verse and text I draw to your attention is found in verse 8: “Judah, thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise.” The opening language of this prophecy concerning Judah is full of instruction and encouragement. And what I want for this morning is for us to consider it in such a way— I trust—that it will cause us to join in the anticipation of this text. “Judah, thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise.” It is not that I want you to go away thinking highly of Judah, the son of Jacob, but that you will go away thinking highly of the One to whom Judah points—a One typified in the language of this prophecy. We’re not looking merely at a man or a tribe. When we lift the veil of this text, we’re seeing the lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the one worthy of the praise spoken of in verse 8. “Thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise.” Men have always heaped their praise upon various people—upon rulers, warriors, philosophers. They are studied, they are admired, and sometimes followed; but the best of them cannot compare to Jesus Christ. Their accomplishments are often as fleeting as the wind, but our Lord Jesus Christ alone stands and occupies a place that can truly fulfill what is envisaged in verse 8. “Thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise.” He is the one to whom our hearts are to be drawn—the One to whom we are to direct our greatest admiration—and the eternal Spirit who inspired Jacob and led him to utter these words sees this very day, in which there are gathered at this very moment people who are being called upon to praise the One here spoken of. God is speaking to you and is calling you to join in this congregation, this group of brethren, to use that general term, who must praise and will praise our Lord Jesus Christ. There’s no more fitting thing to ponder when you come to the Lord’s table—something that leads us to a spirit of praise, that encourages us to praise, that causes our hearts to be filled with a sense of praise.

And so this morning, beloved, I want us to think about what I’ve titled, “The Lion of Judah, Worthy of Praise.” “Judah, thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise.” Now we have a young Judah here, and I guess he could take this text and beat it over the head of his brother and say, “You’re meant to praise me,” but we’re thinking about our Lord Jesus and how He is the one who is meant to be praised here. We’re going to see this text unfold before us in three heads: first, praise resulting from a sovereign choice; then we’ll see praise resulting from a supreme character; and then praise resulting from a superior crown—so, sovereign choice, a supreme character, and a superior crown.

So what’s this sovereign choice? Although Judah was not the firstborn of Jacob, He was the one who was chosen in a particular way by God, and he is here expressed in language as having prominence among his brethren. “Thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise.” Not firstborn, but preeminent—and preeminent specifically in this truth that from him would come the Messiah, the Savior of men. From His loins, as it were, would come the Deliverer, hoped for, anticipated, and longed after. And in this way, then, He is the preeminent One. And in that sense, He is like our Lord Jesus Christ—for the One who would come from Judah is the Chosen One. He is the elect of God. He is the servant of Jehovah, set apart from all eternity to be the Savior of sinners.

So, as we look at this, we consider a couple of things in this sovereign choice. First, it’s sovereignly foreordained—long before Bethlehem’s manger, before the stars shone over that place where our Lord was with Mary and Joseph, before the very first word was spoken to bring creation into existence—Christ was ordained to be the Savior. The Son of God is appointed to be the Lamb (we’re told in Revelation 13, slain from before the foundation of the world). In reading that language, we see that in the eternal councils of God there is one being set apart, the Son of God being appointed as the only sufficient sacrifice for sin; appointed in this way to be designated as the sole mediator between God and men and for the purpose of reconciling, saving, redeeming. He is sovereignly foreordained. Friends, it’s not a backup plan. The expression of it in our remembrance of the table here is not something that was just out of mere convenience. Redemption was not an afterthought. We’re not dealing with the fact that God, in some way, was frustrated and then had to fall back on a contingency plan. No—He’s slain from before the foundation of the world. The plan is set. The wheels are in motion. The Lord Jesus Christ was the Father’s predestined provision for fallen man. When Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, he says in verse 23 that Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God is how he was delivered—though taken and, by wicked hands, crucified and slain. And so you have a sovereign choice here. We see it in this foreordained aspect, but we also see it in the fact that it’s sovereignly foretold— not only sovereignly foreordained, but sovereignly foretold. Jacob’s prophecy that you have here, which gives an indication of things to come, is not the only text that we have in the Bible in relation to this. The Bible is filled with prophecies concerning the One who is to come—the One who is going to bring peace to man and be the Savior of sinners. From the very dawn of human sin, the Lord announced that there would be a Deliverer in Genesis 3:15. You know it well: “The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.” And so here He is being set apart. Here is God addressing fallen man in his plight of being severed from a relationship with God, being told that there’s a plan in motion that is going to right the wrong and reconcile you to your God. When Moses prophesied, he spoke of a prophet who would come like unto him, which the true people of God would listen to. You see, even in identifying who are the true people of God, when Moses gives the indication in Deuteronomy 18:15 that “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken,” you see that language: who do you understand to be the people of God? They are always those who hearken to the prophet prophesied of by Moses. If ye hear not him, Jesus says, “if ye hear not me, ye shall die in your sins.” Jesus wasn’t stating that in a vacuum— even Moses is indicating that He is the arbiter; He is the litmus test. By Him, men are tested. The question to humanity is, what think ye of Christ? Moses, of course, is prophetically declaring that we’re looking for One who would be the Deliverer of men. And when the angel tells Mary of the life she will bear, she is told He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” It’s very encouraging. You read from Genesis to Revelation and see everything pointing toward this One—our Lord Jesus Christ. And so He was sovereignly chosen to save His brethren. And this is why the brethren praise Him: “Judah, thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise.” He’s the one through whom they are going to obtain salvation; He’s the one without which there is no hope. Had salvation been placed in the hands of another, it would have failed. Had the responsibility been given to Judah, it would have come to nothing. But it is given to One from whom Judah is to descend. And so the brethren are going to praise—not just Judah, but truly, they’re going to offer their praise to the One descending from Judah, our Lord Jesus.

We stand here; we come to this table today because the work of redemption was not entrusted to mere human effort. It was God taking on flesh—God taking the responsibility Himself. The captain of our salvation is not a mere Joshua coming after Moses; it is One who is divine and takes our nature into union with Himself. And so it is said of Him in Isaiah 42:1, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth.” And so you see, prophetically stated, there is God’s declaration of His servant, the Messiah, in whom His soul delighteth. And so if the soul of God, as it were, delights in His servant, the Messiah, then what we are doing here in the expression given in verse 8, “Judah, thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise,” is coming alongside the divine intent that this One coming from Judah is to be praised. The Father delights in his son, and so all His brethren are to delight in Him.

Let me say to you this morning, as you come to this table: Is your demeanor, your posture, as you approach the table—even now as you’re listening to the Word—one in which there is this frame of praise, of gratitude, of thanksgiving, of an overwhelming sense of how much He has done for you? How worthy He is of the best that you can offer. Yes, there’s praise here resulting from a sovereign choice. It’s not just Judah here, as Jacob under inspiration gives this word concerning his son, but it points to one even greater—our Lord Jesus. And we gather into this place, and when we come here, before I say any more, we are to be fulfilling this verse. And in your home you’re to be fulfilling this verse. And you’re to say, “We assemble together for the purpose that He is the one whom we should praise.” But note also: the praise resulting from a supreme character—not just a sovereign choice, but a supreme character. It is not only Christ’s sovereign appointment that calls forth praise, but also the spotlessness of the One who is here—the perfections of the One appointed. If ever there was one to be exalted, it is our Lord Jesus. And He is worthy of it, men and women—worthy of every praise we can offer: His life, His love, His sacrifice summoned us to praise Him. And there ought to be no hiccup in that praise—no pause, no vacation. Our whole life is to be one continual offering of praise; from our souls there is to be continually the sacrifice of praise, giving thanks to His name. And you’re called to this. You’re called to join in with the innumerable multitude of those who will praise Him. “Judah, thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise.” As we think of this supreme character, we can first consider His perfect purity—His perfect purity. Judah, as a man, had his faults. If you know the history, you’ll be aware of that—chapter 38, particularly of Genesis, draws our attention to his shortcomings as a man. But this is not true of the One who’s going to descend from him—the Lion of the tribe of Judah, our Lord Jesus Christ. No, He is altogether lovely. (Song of Solomon 5.) Altogether lovely. No matter how you look at Him, He is lovely. From every facet, every angle, when you examine the Lord Jesus Christ, you find no fault in Him. It is a glory for us to think about that. I don’t know if you’ve ever been attacked before—anyone trying to come after you for all your faults, trying to say all the things you’ve got wrong or the things they don’t like about you, whatever the case might be. Sometimes, you know, there’s great encouragement in such attacks. Not in the sense that we look at it and say, “You know, think of it in terms of a paper”—you write an essay or a paper and you see the red pen of the teacher going through and noting the things that come up short—and you sit back and dread it, seeing the red pen and thinking, “Oh no.” But when you actually, on the whole, begin to look at it, you say to yourself, “Well, if that’s all they had to say, maybe it wasn’t that bad.” Really, because they’re looking for something—they’re trying to find fault. And when you think about it, there’s nothing major; it’s not that bad. Sometimes, even when you’re attacked or questioned, when you analyze the way in which people are trying to find fault, you look at it and say to yourself, “If that’s all they have, then there’s a mercy in that which indicates something good.” I mentioned it, too, when I sent out the email yesterday with the passing of the Reverend William Whiteside and some of the language from his youngest son, Stephen, and just looking at that—I’m sure he could tell you all the things that might have been peculiar in terms of the shortcomings of his father. I’m sure he could have, but it wasn’t the time nor the place; ultimately, when he looks at it, he says, “He was the best man I ever knew.” It’s a tremendous thing to be able to say.

Now, when we live our lives, people are going to see our shortcomings. But whenever we look at the Lord Jesus Christ, we’re not just whitewashing. We’re not just saying something like, “The best man that ever lived,” while overlooking a few details here and there. With Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter what scrutiny is brought against Him—there is perfect purity. When the prince of this world came against Him, He found nothing in Him (John 14:30). He is the unblemished Lamb. Those lambs that were to be selected for the sacrifice were to be unblemished—they were to be the best—and offered that. Why offer the best? Because it was to typify something they could never fully typify: the perfection of God’s Son. Had our Lord Jesus failed in a thought, then all of redemption would collapse. We need not just a substitutionary sacrifice; we need a perfect substitutionary sacrifice. In Deuteronomy 27:26 we are told, “Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them.” A curse is brought upon the one who doesn’t perfectly exercise obedience to every part of the law. A part of what we do when we read the law each Lord’s Day morning is to expose our hearts to the ways in which we do not uphold it, and then have our attention directed to the only One who did fulfill it. And so even in the record of Moses when he says, “That curse be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them,” everyone standing there should recognize that we need another. They could look to their fathers who failed miserably and look into their own hearts and see the impossibility of keeping this law perfectly. So Moses tells them to circumcise their hearts—they need new life, and that life is to be found in Jesus Christ. He is the One who upheld everything and did everything according to the will of God. And so He takes this position in His perfect purity.

Jeremiah 23:5–6 says, “‘Behold, the days come,’ saith the Lord, ‘that I will raise unto David a righteous branch; and a king shall reign, and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.’” This is the title given to Him. Our righteousness is not in our adherence to the law. When we adhere to the law and try to find salvation therein, we stand condemned; there is a curse upon us. Every man who tries to circumvent Jesus Christ lives condemned. This is what Jesus says in John 3—“they are condemned already.” They stand on their judgment. If you’re here this morning living in a mentality whereby you think you can save yourself, that you can acquire righteousness and hopefully do more good than bad, then on the final test and examination of judgment, that God will perceive that you did more good than ill and that everything will be fine—you are going to be shipwrecked on that occasion. Jesus is the Lord, our righteousness. Jehovah said, “Can you?” The only hope, the only righteousness, the only sufficient, perfect obedience is in Him. This is why we say salvation is by faith, to trust in Him entirely. The just ones live in that position by faith and only by faith—not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He has saved us.

Daniel also speaks of a day when the Messiah comes and makes an end to sins—to make reconciliation for iniquity (Daniel 9:24) and to bring in everlasting righteousness. He’s ushering in a day in which that which never existed is brought into being through Jesus Christ. He is ushering in everlasting righteousness. Righteousness reigns first through Him and then to His people as they come into the great experience of His finished work. And this is our hope around this table this morning. You know, this is a foretaste—a foretaste of heaven right here, sitting at the table, a foretaste of heaven in many respects, but not least of which is the fact that those who sit and participate here know they’re going to partake in what is laid up in eternity, and they know that not through any vain hope that they might, by their own effort, satisfy God—your confidence is in Jesus Christ, and that is sufficient. He is enough. You sit at the table as a result of the perfect purity of Christ. That’s how you sit here; that’s how you enter heaven. This is why we don’t encourage or offer communion to everyone. It’s why, parents, we encourage you in relation to your children to hold off until not only do they profess faith, but you can see some sincerity in that profession. There’s evidence of a work of God in their lives. When you are satisfied of that and then you want me to assess it as well, I’d be happy to. There has to be, here at this table, an expression of what’s true—only those clothed in the righteousness of Christ should sit here, because only those are going to heaven.

This is why the brethren praise Him: “Judah, thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise.” Oh, see—see beyond that beloved son of Jacob and see the beloved Son of God. “Judah, thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise.” Let you and I say this morning, “Thou art he that I will praise.” May God bless His word.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

Christian, what more can be said? The text expresses it more eloquently than I do. “Thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise.” May you and I respond, “Yes, I am in that number. I have a heart. May it burn within me. I have lips and a tongue; let them break forth into praise. Thou art he unto whom thy brethren shall praise.” Lord, help us. We bless Thee for this insight and reminder of the glories of Thy Son—what glory there is! It is a subject that we will explore for all eternity and never get to the bottom of—the wonders of the Lamb. Help us now as we meditate, fashion our hearts, and govern our minds, and lead us by the Spirit into this moment of remembering Thee. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.